I didn't mention I am working on the Urban Aran cardigan. When the weather got cold in September, I started the sleeves of this sweater. due to the thick yarn, the sleeves are knit on a couple stitches less than the smallest pattern size.

The body is knit all in one piece, splitting at the armholes. Followed the pattern stitch count, just dropping the appropriate stitches at the (non)seams. it seemed to take a long time.

When I first started this sweater, maybe it was a sleeve, it was while watching Cinderella Man. Now even just looking at the grey cable pattern I am reminded of the movie.

In this photo, it is blocking, but in real life I've started the collar and purchased a zipper. The collar seems large, so it may need to be done over.

The yarn is gjestal naturgarn from elann that waited many months for an appropriate sweater pattern, suffering a couple trials and errors in the process. the funny thing is, I just started knitting this one. no big pattern contemplation or anything. for me, that is a benefit to not blogging.. less planning, no accountability, knitting is just knitting.

ps. wore the built by wendy coat this weekend with great success! its a little big, but I just pretend it is a swing coat and that helps. perhaps a modeled shot this week.

The Urban Aran collar took a couple tries.

I wanted the top of the collar to be fitted and straight, so it could be zipped up into a decent-looking turtleneck. The pattern as written tends to yeild a looser collar. I modified it a bit to get these results..

I picked up less stitches. My collar was worked over 84 stitches total on the smaller needle size: k3, p1 selvedge on each edge, and k2 p2 rib in between. This is about eight stitches less than called for in the pattern.

Also, I decreased right before casting off. On the WS row before casting off, I worked all the k2s as k2togs. These are the purl stitches on the RS, so the decreases aren't very visisible. Then I just did a normal cast off. Without this step, even with the reduced stitch count, the collar tended to flare out.

perhaps this will help future knitters of the urban aran..

The Urban Aran Cardigan is complete.

Specs:
Pattern: Urban Aran from Patons Street Smart
Yarn: Gjestal Naturegarn from elann (not currently sold). Its a thick single similar to Lamb's Pride Chunky
Needles/Gauge: size 10 for the ribbing, and 10.5 everywhere else

Cardiganization: To turn this pullover into a cardigan, I copied jared and added 3 knit stitches to each side of the front opening and slipped the first and last stitch on the WS rows. This worked really well, the slipped stitch wrapped around to the back for a clean edge.

Zipper Installation: I referenced Bonnie Marie's zipper tutorial. I found the most important part (in addition to basting) was to place the zipper teeth just inside the edge of the knitted fabric. This way, there is no gap between the knitted edges and the zipper is not visible.

Size: Even though I dropped 4 stitches from the sleeves, they are still on the big side. Might try re-blocking. Overall, this is loose sweater. It very warm though!